THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN: THE MAGIC MILLIONS - A DAY OF GREAT THEATRE

By Graham Potter | Saturday, January 14, 2017

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily.

The heat is on ... in more ways than one!

Today the Gold Coast Turf Club will host Australia’s richest race-day, headlined by the $2 million Magic Millions Two-Year-Old Classic.

You can break out in a sweat just thinking about running for that kind of money. Throw in a predicted afternoon temperature of 35 degrees and the claustrophobic crush of a racetrack teeming with spectators and then consider the melting pot of emotions that will have some celebrating like there is no tomorrow and other wondering what might have been.

It is the recipe for great theatre.

The Sunshine Coast based combination of trainer Darryl Hansen and jockey Luke Tarrant will be right in the thick of things trying to win the big one for the second time. They were successful with Le Chef in 2015 and this time they bring what they will hope to be the appropriately named Bring It Home Pop to the contest.

For different reasons, both Hansen and Tarrant have not had the easiest of times since their famous win in 2015. Credit must go to them for fighting through their particular difficulties and also for holding their own and already coming out as winners in the robust, highly competitive ‘race within a race’ for a place in the final line-up.

A win here would be like reaching the summit after a very long climb.

Sunshine Coast champion jockey Damian Browne is also there to have his say. Browne rides the unbeaten Ours To Keep who will lead out the parade. Will this duo also be in front at the finish?

There are many who think that Browne’s well proven expertise in the saddle combined with trainer Chris Munce’s strength of experience and an almost perfect barrier draw for the colt will all contribute to a big performance from Ours To Keep, with a win being a very much talked about possibility.

So, as far as jockey and trainer involvement is concerned, the Sunshine Coast racing community have two chances to claim their slice of glory.

It is going to be a big seventy seconds of big race action in which the $1.2 million first prize will translate to approximately $17 140 a second the winner.

Not a bad gig if you can pull it off!